Automatic analyzing devices, intended to analyze samples (e.g., biological samples of serum, urine, or the like, or liquid mixtures thereof with reagents) by assaying physical properties of these samples or mixtures, include constituent elements relating to various steps such as container cover opening, chemicals dispensing, stirring, and analyzing.
As described in Patent Documents 1 to 3 below, conventional techniques relating to a cover opener which opens a cover of a container in the respective cover-opening steps of those automatic analyzing devices are each targeted for a sample container accommodating a sample to be assayed (the cover-opening step in each such device is hereinafter referred to as the cover opening process).
The cover opener described in Patent Document 1 (JP-UM-1995-18265-A) includes a cover opening member provided with a gripping portion having a gripping arm to grip an outer circumferential surface of a head portion of a rubber cover mounted over a blood collection tube which is a sample container. The cover opening member also has a plate that is engaged with the cover opening member by a pin provided above the gripping portion of the cover opening member. Upon moving the plate in a horizontal direction by activating horizontal moving means, the cover opener causes the cover opening member to incline with the gripping portion fixed to the rubber cover, as a center, thus conducting the cover opening process by removing the cover from the blood collection tube (sample container).
The cover opener described in Patent Document 2 (JP-UM-1995-29464-A) includes a cover opening member that moves forward from an obliquely downward direction, in an obliquely upward direction, towards a rubber cover of a sample container, or vice versa. The cover opening member presses a front end of its spring plate against the rubber cover in a forward moving stroke of the opening member, then pushes the cover further obliquely upward, thereby conducting the cover opening process by removing the rubber cover from the sample container.
The cover opener described in Patent Document 3 (JP-2000-146985-A) includes a rubber-cover gripping chuck that grips a rubber cover of a sample container, the rubber-cover gripping chuck, after gripping the rubber cover, oscillatingly moving upward to conduct the cover opening process by drawing the rubber cover from a vacuum tube.
In addition, other conventional techniques relating to a cover opener which conducts the cover opening process upon a reagent container accommodating a reagent are described in Patent Documents 4 and 5.
The cover openers described in Patent Document 4 (JP-2004-294428-A) and Patent Document 5 (JP-2009-58509-A) are those which open a cover that is rotationally removed from and fixed to the reagent container, the cover having a concave portion on its upper surface in addition to a tooth-like structure on an outer circumferential portion of the upper surface. These cover openers each include a snap-in element provided at a lower end of a centering unit, for engagement with the concave portion in the cover, and a carrier having a capture element for securing to the tooth-like structure of the cover. The snap-in element holds the cover and the carrier rotates the cover, whereby the opener conducts the cover opening process.